User blog:Sporeman0/Digital Haunt Theory - Cassandra begins in the echoplane
There are 7 songs which are most relevant to my Digital Haunt theory; System;Start, Are You Listening?, Override A, Override C, Cassandra, Pt. II, Processor and Panacea and the Prelogue. The other songs take minor roles, such as the Anime songs in ATLITS, which I believe are "in-universe", and the other Modern Synthesis songs, which carry themes of the Digital Haunt but are not necessarily about it. One final piece of information is that Area 11 are not (necessarily) in the Digital Haunt universe, evidence (right) taken from the comments section of Vlog 5. This skews my previous theory that they were the cause of Cassandra leaving the Echoplane, but does not by any means disprove it, just cause it to require adjusting. This theory hinges on the idea that Cassandra has lived in the Echoplane for the majority, if not all, of her life. The residents of the Echoplane worship Echo (god), their god, who is an Artificial Intelligence quite probably created by the creator of the Echoplane. Cassandra doesn't particularly believe in Echo, which eventually leads to the events of the main story. Are You Listening? This song outlines Cassandra's feelings towards Echo and the Echoplane. The first 4-5 lines show how little people in the Echplane value relationships over business. Over the rest of the first verse, Cassandra outlines how she doesn't feel at home in the Echoplane, and begs Echo to listen since despite the devout worshippers, Echo barely if ever responds - "Are you really listening", "So what you feel, is it nostalgia or love?", etc. The following verse and chorus is from the point of view of the group in System;Start, who play on this feeling to coerce Cassandra into leaving the Echoplane. This time, the chorus speaks to Cassandra, not only questioning her potential reasons for remaining, but also turning her own words back at her. This could point to her realising that she is the master of her own destiny, and give her incentive to leave. The final verse warns her that she must make the choice on the day that they tell her this - "fade into hindsight" suggests that Cassandra would regret not taking this chance, and the backing as the final Chorus fades out shows that Cassandra does take this decision, and is effectively looking back at it - "this was the night" etc. Override A This track provides Cassandra's potential reasons for staying, and mirrors Override C, but I'll get onto that later. The main recurring theme here is that this decision would be worse than a leap of faith - if this goes wrong, eternal punishment would be the result. There're many references to sacrifice, but a subtle mention of the fact that, if Cassandra succeeds, she will have escaped the Echoplane, and might "be something". The "flatlining" at the end might signify that this is what is happening on the "Echoplane side", ending with Cassandra leaving the Echoplane, but with a twist - the "I am willing to die/To be something" might be the same as the "Yes, I'm ready" from System;Start, for example. With Override A being the "Echoplane side" and C being the "real world side", Override B is the middle, the travel. This period of time takes a while to Cassandra, and gives her time to consider her decision before she emerges into the real world Override C The "joyous song" to Override A's "elegy", Override C describes the same event as A from the other side of the looking glass, with "Are you willing to die?" being supplemented for "Are you ready for life?", a little closer to the "Are you ready to begin?" from System;Start, but still heavily tinted. Whereas A carried lots of religious symbolism, C is more science-oriented, although to a lesser extent - "fractals in a palm of a single tree" quite probably refers to the phylogenetic tree featured on the cover. The "two points of view" mentioned are probably those of science and religion, bridged by theistic evolution, or the real world and Echoplane in general. The contrast between A and C shows the differing views of both worlds, and suggests that neither is fully correct. This is where System;Start comes in. System;Start Not particularly musical, this track is probably the most story-heavy piece to date, giving us the name Cassandra, and several other details. From these we can discern that this is an audio recording of the events sung about in Overrides A and C. This makes it an objective mediator, although it only shows one side of the story. The language used is relatively formal, suggesting that Cassandra doesn't know whoever is speaking to her. It is in this track that we also find out what the question Cassandra was asked actually was - "Are you ready to begin?". The dial-up tone could be an auditory reference to the connection being made, although Sparkles*'s character talks about calibration during it, so that may not be correct. System start marks the end of the four songs on the topic of Cassandra leaving the Echoplane and being transferred into a mechanical or robotic body. Cassandra, Pt. II Cassandra Pt II will be interpreted as meaning "Part 2", not any of the other potential meanings discussed on its page. I will also be taking the comment that Pt. II is 2 of 7, from the discussion of the track, into account. I believe that the "Part 2" of Cassandra is Echo, who has effectively hijacked the transfer and is now in Cassandra's body too. She retains little to no control, and can only communicate with Cassandra "mentally". This can be seen in various lyrics, such as "In dreams I'm coming to find you", but ultimately this is discussing the situation - Echo is "hiding inside" Cassandra, and the key phrase "A digital haunt in an analogue life" refers to the robotic body the two "digital souls" are in. But the escape from the Echoplane that Echo ultimately wanted results in something of a role reversal, hinted at by "This was the moment, this was the place/This was the night", which is reversed from the same lyrics in Are You Listening?, and shows that Cassandra now leads Echo's life and not the other way around. Furthermore, Echo is "hiding" because no-one now knows where she is. Processor This song is also from Echo's point of view, the first verse outlining some of the consequences and rationale behind her actions. Firstly, in leaving the Echoplane, she "took a chance to fly", but caused a war inadvertently as a result. If she had remained, Cassandra leaving could have lead to the citizens of the Echoplane rejecting her as a god, necessitating her leaving. This song also alludes to her residing in Cassandra's body, and to Cassandra's "vitriolic accusations: was I listening?". Ultimately, she wanted the same as Cassandra - the chance to be her own person. The second verse is in response to what now happens inside the Echoplane. Echo urges Cassandra to make a change where she couldn't or can't - the "apraxia" being either a restriction imposed by her creator or her lack of control now she's in Cassandra's body. However, as we approach the "Lines fade out" portion of the song, Echo reveals that if Cassandra lets her, she can take control of the body. She also suggests that only she knows how to get back into the Echoplane, and that Cassandra will eventually need to return to it. Panacea and the Prelogue The final part of my theory is first chronologically, the part before the prologue - the Prelogue. I believe it's about Echo's creator, who, having lost a friend or lover ("The only melodies that I could ever call mine/Were friendship and lust") returns them to "life" in the form of Echo, the AI. Echo was not her original name, but the name the creator gave her after he realised she was not the real thing ("A panacea for the absent soul/Still it's never enough"). The "bodies and the silver just a loan" is referring to the frailty of human life, not Cassandra and Echo's shared body, and now the "lines fade out" is about Cassandra's creator returning to his friend/lover in death. The song is in reality Echo thinking back on the events, and on Echodeath, the events that followed, which destroyed Echo's realm, the Echoplane. Lyrical Tidbits Euphemia: *I'm not certain that "I became your puppet master" isn't "I became your puppet, master". The following line, "as you stared into my eyes" makes it seem as if the person the speaker is talking to was making the action of staring. Furthermore, within Code Geass, Lelouch had his Geass in only one eye, so "eyes" would be somewhat incorrect if he was the speaker. Of course, it could be a double meaning able to be intepreted in 2 different ways Override A: *"Under the ice" is probably linked to "Dihydrogen prism of fate" since ice is solid water, which contains 2 hydrogen atoms per molecule Versus: *The "Can you remember what it is we're dying for" in the chorus becomes "Can we remember what it is we're dying for", perhaps indicating a change in the speaker or a change in the meaning Processor: *"I want to be, to be" at the end of the chorus becomes "I want to be better, better" the second time, probably showing an increase in ambition Red Queen: *In a deck of cards, there are 2 red queens, the queen of hearts and the queen of diamonds. In 3- way chess, the 3rd player is typically red, and their queen is therefore the Red Queen After the Flags: *"Heavy headed when we collide" is, I feel, talking about nuclear weapons. They are also called war'heads' and the elements used in them have a higher atomic mass, and thus could be considered "heavier" *The "Thread sisters" are likely the 3 Fates from Greek/Roman mythology. The line could be saying "fate, stay on my side" or something deeper. The 3 Fates are sisters known for marking out people's lives with thread Nebula: *A little tenuous, but in "The Wizard of Oz", the famed Emerald City is actually not bright green as it is claimed, but instead all the inhabitants wear green glasses as part of a trick. This could be considered a"Crystaline fantasy", although phantasy might mean something completely different. Category:Blog posts